Read Jean P Sasson - [Princess 02] for Free Online Page A

permanent husband in Saudi Arabia, since there were many Yemeni laborers working in that rich country.
    The agent agreed that he would make an effort. Otherwise, he said, Reema could become a servant in his home.
    Reema said goodbye to her family and left the land of her birth, haunted by the pitiful weeping of her two handicapped brothers.
    During the trip, the man promised a homesick Reema that he would purchase her a doll, even though such an item was expressly forbidden by the men of religion.
    Like most Arab girls, Reema had full knowledge of a wife's responsibilities. She had slept in the same room with her parents since the day of her birth. She understood that a woman must submit to her husband's every wish.
    Aisha said it was the girl's calm acceptance of her life of slavery that she found so distressing, recalling that the girl's tears belied her declaration that she was not displeased with her lot. Reema wept for the six days she was in Aisha's home, all the while defending the right of Aisha's father to do with her as he pleased.
    Aisha revealed that her father's employee easily located a Yemeni man who was employed as a tea boy in one of their offices, a man who was willing to accept Reema as his second wife. The man's first wife was in Yemen, and he admitted that he needed a woman to cook his meals and serve him.
    The last day Aisha saw Reema, the young girl was clutching a small doll, obediently following one man out of their home to go and wed another man she did not know.
    Aisha's mother, a pious Sunni Muslim, became so distraught over Reema's situation that she went to her husband's family to complain. This desperate deed created quite a furor in the family, but nothing the man's parents could say or do convinced their son to cease the godless act. Their advice was for Aisha's mother to pray to God for her husband's soul.
    I often wondered what became of those children, the mut'a brides, for it is quite difficult in the Muslim world to arrange a good marriage for a girl who is no longer a virgin. As dispensable girls in fortuneless
    families, they were, I suppose, eventually married off as the third or fourth wife to a man without wealth or influence, much in the same manner as Reema, or of my childhood friend Wafa, who had been wed to such a one against her will by her own father as punishment for socializing with men not of her family.
    Aisha's home life was agony for a thinking girl, and the stress and strain of her father's debauchery pushed her into inevitable teen age decline.
    My daughter, Maha, naturally imprudent, was captivated by Aisha's antics. Recalling my own rebellious youth, I knew the futility of forbidding Maha to meet with Aisha. Forbidden fruit is too tempting for all children, regardless of their nationality or sex.
    During the height of the Gulf War, our king harnessed the most aggressive of the roving bands of morals police, forbidding them to harass Western visitors to our land. Quite sensibly, the men of our family knew it would not do for journalists from the West to view life as it really is in our country.
    Happily, the women of Saudi Arabia benefited from this royal order. The absence of sharp-eyed religious police patrolling the cities of Saudi Arabia, searching for uncovered women to strike with their sticks, or spray with red paint, was too good to be true. This policy endured no longer than the war itself, but for a few months we Saudi women enjoyed a welcome respite from probing eyes.
    During this heady period, there was a universal call for the women of Saudi Arabia to take their proper place in society, and we foolishly thought that the favorable situation would continue for ever.
    For some of our women, too much freedom given too quickly proved disastrous. Our men were disappointed that all women did not behave as saints, without understanding the confusion caused by the contradictions in our lives.
    Now I know that Aisha and Maha were two Saudi girls not yet